criminalmindsfandomcom-20200223-history
Edmund Kemper
"When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things: one part of me wants to take her home, be real nice and treat her right; the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick." Edmund Emil "Ed" Kemper III, a.k.a. "The Co-Ed Killer", is an American serial/spree killer, necrophiliac, and cannibal active in the early 1970s. His murders coincided with those of another California serial killer, Herbert Mullin. Serial Killings and Capture After being released, Kemper, still living with his mother, took a number of menial jobs before eventually getting a job at the State of California's Department of Public Works as a laborer. He was then 6 foot 9 (2,05 m) and weighed ca. 300 pounds (ca. 140 kg). He befriended several local police officers and even planned to become one himself, a dream that ended when he learned that he was above regulation height. Though he wasn't good with money, he eventually saved up enough to move away from his mother and get an apartment with a roommate. After getting a $15,000 settlement through a motorbike accident, he bought a yellow Ford Galaxy and began cruising the Pacific coast area in search of female hitchhikers, all the while gathering kill supplies such as a knife, plastic bags and handcuffs. He eventually had to leave his apartment and move back in with his mother, who had been divorced a total of three times by that point. On May 7, 1972, he committed his first two murders as a serial killer. Over the following nine months, he killed four more women, coinciding with murders committed by fellow Californian serial killer Herbert Mullin. Many of his murders were committed after an argument with his mother. On April 19, 1973, he bludgeoned his mother to death in her sleep and spent hours mutilating her body, severing her head, using it for oral sex, tossing darts at it and throwing her vocal chords into the garbage disposer. When the murder didn't satisfy his homicidal needs, he invited over Sally Hallett, a friend of his mother, and killed her as well when she arrived. Kemper then took his car and drove away, all the while listening to the radio for reports about his murders. After four days on the road without hearing any such broadcasts, he stopped at a phone booth in Pueblo, Colorado, called his friends at the Santa Cruz PD and confessed to his eight murders. At first, they thought it was a poor joke, but, after a few phone calls, learned that he was telling the truth. He then sat down in the car and waited for them to come and arrest him. After unsuccessfully pleading insanity, he requested to be sentenced to death and executed by electrical chair, like he had fantasized about, but due to the state having temporarily suspended capital punishment, he was denied his childhood dream and sentenced to life in prison. While in prison, he was one of the first 36 convicted killers to be interviewed by the then recently founded Behavioral Science Unit. He was interviewed three times by Robert Ressler. During the third time, the guards didn't respond when he called for them and he found himself locked in the small room alone with Kemper, who started making death threats and taunting him. When the guard finally came, he claimed to have been kidding. John Douglas, who also interviewed him, later admitted to liking Kemper, who was friendly, open, and sensitive when they spoke. Kemper is still (January 2014) serving his sentence at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Modus Operandi "If I killed them, you know, they couldn't reject me as a man. It was more or less making a doll out of a human being... and carrying out my fantasies with a doll, a living human doll." Kemper targeted women, most of whom were co-eds. All victims during his serial killer period, with the exception of his mother and Sally Hallett, were hitchhikers who were given rides by him when he cruised around. After taking them somewhere secluded, chatting them up on the way, he would kill them in various ways, including shooting, stabbing and strangling, and then take their remains to his room, where he would perform bizarre experiments on, eviscerate, and engage in sexual activities with their bodies. He took Polaroid photos of their mutilated corpses as souvenirs. After he was done with the remains, he would dispose of them, often by throwing them into a ravine or a gorge. The heads of some victims were buried in his mother's garden, with Kemper claiming he placed them there because his mother "always wanted people to look up to her". Known Victims *August 27, 1964: Edmund Sr. and Maude Kemper *1972: **May 7: Mary Ann Pesce and Anita Luchessa : ***Mary Ann Pesce, 18 ***Anita Luchessa, 18 **September 14: Aiko Koo, 15 *1973: **January 7: Cindy Schall, 19 **February 5: Rosalind Thorpe and Allison Liu : ***Rosalind Thorpe, 24 ***Allison Liu, 23 **April 19: ***Clarnell Strandberg ***Sally Hallett, 59 Notes *Kemper's killings were part of the reason why Santa Cruz, California earned the nickname "Murder Capital of the World". The other reasons were: **The murders committed by serial killer Herbert Mullin and mass murderer John Linley Frazier happened around the same time. **The Zodiac Killer was also active in the same state a few years earlier. **Another cluster of murders suspected of being a serial case known as the "Astrological murders" were also committed in California around that time. Like Kemper, that offender also targeted women and disposed of their remains in ravines. **The Manson Family, led by Charles Manson, and the Hillside Stranglers, Angelo Buono and Kenneth Bianchi, also committed several murders in California in the 70s. **Additionally, Richard Ramirez, The Night Stalker, and an unidentified serial killer and rapist known as The Original Night Stalker were active in the state in both the 70s and the 80s, as was The Grim Sleeper, who returned in the 2000s. **Harvey Glatman, Richard Chase, Juan Corona, and Leonard Lake and Charles Ng were also active in California, as were William Bonin, Patrick Kearney, and Randy Kraft, the three of whom were believed to be a single serial killer known as The Freeway Killer. On Criminal Minds Kemper's first reference on Criminal Minds was in Charm and Harm as an example of killers who save their most meaningful murders for last, referring to how he killed his mother. He was also mentioned in Penelope alongside Ted Bundy and Robert Anderson as examples of killers who appeared to gain sadistic satisfaction out of gaining the trust of their victims and out of lulling them into a false sense of security. A scene from Damaged in which Hotch and Reid interview serial killer Chester Hardwick appears to have been based on Robert Ressler's third interview with Kemper; in both cases, the interviewers were threatened by the killer when guards didn't show up and stalled for time by talking to them. Kemper was also compared to the unsub of The Stranger by Reid in the sense that he also wasn't ready to confront the target of his rage and attacked other women instead (referring to how Kemper killed his mother); the same comparison was made in Proof. Additionally, both killers were active in California and had very close relationships to their fathers. Also, the quote above appears to be very similar to the one Eric Olson gave to the BAU in Zoe's Reprise. While Kemper wasn't mentioned or referenced in The Last Word, the fact that he was active simultaneously to Herbert Mullin might've been one of many inspirations for the episode's two prominent unsubs, The Mill Creek Killer and The Hollow Man. He also wasn't mentioned in Carbon Copy, but his surname was used for mentioned in-show serial killer Jack Lee Kemper. Sources *Wikipedia's article about Kemper *TruTV's articles about Kemper *''Evil Beyond Belief'''s (2009, ISBN: 978-1-84837-000-5) article about Kemper *Radford University's summary of Kemper's life Category:Real People Category:Real Life Killers Category:Real Serial Killers Category:Real Spree Killers Category:Real Rampage Killers